


When Our bodies are Cold We Worship at the Kotatsu

by Knightowls



Category: One Piece
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, God!Kotatsu, Marineford Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28053444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knightowls/pseuds/Knightowls
Summary: Based off of the a tumblr prompt that when someone says they would die for an animal their souls are now owned by that animal and when the person dies the souls help the animal ascend to godhood.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	When Our bodies are Cold We Worship at the Kotatsu

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to Aibhilin for helping me

Kotatsu had been collecting souls for longer than all the Spades had been alive collectively. He felt something growing within him. Not that he knew that was what he was doing. He didn’t know what it was, but it kept his body young, his senses sharp. That trap that caught him and those horrid people was a stupid mistake. One he would have regretted for longer if it wasn’t for his fire-human. Setting him free and then allowing him to experience a new kind of freedom he never experienced before. The freedom of the sea. He liked the fire-human the most out of all humans on the ship. He was warm and understood the importance of naps. The bits of meat he would share from his plate were a proper tribute.

He did not like being separated from his fire-human by the large-human’s crew. But he was once again with him and he was happier than he had ever seen him before. His fire human came and went as he pleased, just as he should. Then the wrong-human became the dark-human and the food-human was cold. Never to breathe or feed Kotatsu again. And then fire-human was gone, gone for so long. Kotasu turned to others, even that stupid canine, to find the warmth he lost when fire-human left. None were warm enough, no one gave him the proper tribute any more.

Then one day, one of the birds came and the crew was in uproar. They moved from one spot to the other and after Kotasu got his tail stepped on twice, he found a corner and stayed there. In-between his naps, he listened as the humans talked. _Ace, captured_ , and _do something_ were spoken the most. He understood that his fire-human, Ace, had been captured. Kotatsu remembered his own confinement, the poor food, the cage he was forced to sleep in and the captures who hurt him for their own amusement. Ace was now the one who was trapped, who was hurting. Kotatsu remembered the day Ace said he would die for Kotatsu and Kotatsu decided that he would fight for his human, his Ace, too.

They were underwater, Kotatsu hated being underwater. Drinking was fine, swimming was fine, but this, this was wrong. Too deep, too dark, but they had to go there, if they wanted to save Ace. Then they breached the surface and there Ace was, on the stand, chained like Kotatsu once had been. The humans were yelling and fighting. Kotatsu was too, he bit any Marine that came too close, keeping an eye on Ace as the loudest one fought to get close enough to save him. Then he was free, Ace was free and running to them and… why did he stop? _No, Ace! Keep running!_ Freedom was right there! Kotatsu couldn’t lose him. _He wouldn’t lose him_. So Kotatsu ran, sprinting towards Ace, dodging past Marines and Pirates alike. Kotatsu refused to lose another friend to cruel men.

He’s too late, the bad-man put his fist through Ace and the loud one held him as others drove the bad-man away. The battlefield is near silent as Ace said his goodbyes. Ace went limp and Kotatsu nudged him and licked his face because Ace was just asleep right? Right? He’ll wake up like he normally does when Kotatsu wakes him with little kisses, right?

But he’s not. Ace isn’t waking up and Kotatsu feels the Thing That Grows grow once more and it's hot. It burns, it’s consuming Kotatsu and he lets it. He takes the heat and burns and lets the fire consume his body. Let him turn to ashes with Ace. Except, his body wasn’t being eaten by the fire, no, in fact, his body grew, strength like no other filled him as his fang grew and his senses took in more than they ever had before. He stands above Ace, taller than ever before, taller even than the large-man. He took Ace and the loud-little one and put them with the fishman who still smelled of Ace.

Then he turns, power still growing, fire raging on and around his body, paw prints burned into the ground. Kotatsu howl-rages across the battlefield. He is no human, he was not made to use haki and maybe magma can beat fire, but an Angered God will never allow a slight to go unpunished and, for the first time ever, Kotatsu opens his mouth and speaks.

“I am Kotatsu, Spade Pirate, friend of Portgas D. Ace, and you will BURN!” The ground shakes and fractures with the declaration, then Kotatsu is gone and so is the top half of Akainu. With a bloodied maw, Kotasu howls once more and fire RAGES.

3 months later and Marineford still burns and the magma fruit has still yet to be found.


End file.
